And another month passes by....

Let's start over shall we? Completely over. I was having difficulty finding inspiration and motivation but I might be back on track. This is terribly silly to say but I became inspired from making copious amounts of online wish lists. I don't make lists like this for typical reasons like hey friends and family, buy me all this crap, or even as a shopping list for myself -though I do shop from them. I don't know when this started but it's been more of a forced habit. A few times a year I will scan through my favorite online shopping sites from top to bottom. I add items to my wish list if I like how they're designed. I suppose it's more of a virtual cork board. I have a physical one as well that features Shepard Fairey's infamous Obama image, Bjork in her swan dress, a kung fu puma ad from the 90's and a sumo wrestler doing ballet in pointe shoes. Anyway back to the virtual inspiration board. I guess it's sort of a way to keep me up to date and also let's me spring board. The other part that pushed me back into design mentality was my coworker Heather. She has a nonprofit that repurposes anything and everything and puts it back into the community. We were chatting about repuposed and vintage items and it made me remember how much I enjoyed thrift shopping as a teenager. I gave up on that for a while when I lived in a college town, however I no longer live in that college town. It just so happens there are more than 2 dozen antique stores with in a square mile of my house. So one sunny Saturday afternoon the BF and I hit up a few stores. Definitely hit the jack pot in a surprisingly large shop who's location shall remain unnamed as to protect the things I want to go back for. The third part to all of this was finding a house tour on apartment therapy. The girl decorated her house on entirely used items with no budget. She made a rule that she could only buy something if she was using the money from selling something she already had. The exception was a refrigerator but it turned out pretty awesome.
So I have successfully become visually aroused, inspired and motivated to create something lovely. Too bad I'm about to work 6 shifts in a row....

oh my.

While I was complaining about work (day job) related situations I realized I've been letting those things I don't honestly care about get under my skin far too easily. I worked through my thoughts and concluded if I were actually spending time doing something other than my day job, I would care about those other things and wouldn't be thinking about work once I clocked out. I simultaneously became aware of how very little I have focused on my passions the past few months. So I'm back :) not that blogging is necessarily a passion but this blog is focused on design, art and creativity. Starting it was originally a way to procrastinate building my design website but in the past it was very helpful to remind me to keep my passions in my day to day life.
I don't have much of a comeback blog for you, but I will share this site I discovered today.

Also, I am admitting my embarrassment for my utter laziness. This blog was started just a little more than a year ago, which means my website has been procrastinated for nearly two years. Seriously pathetic.

Never Can Say Goodbye

I just started my post series of dedications to my creative influences through out the years and to be completely honest, Michael Jackson was on the list before he passed. I still listen to MJ on a weekly basis. My mother had me in 1985 when she was 22 and I actually grew up watching MTV with her. I developed a taste in music very early. My first favorite video...


My favorite coworker is a 76 year old woman named Marie. This morning she shared a story with me about seeing MJ perform with the Jackson 5 at the Oklahoma City Civic Center.

Because MJ will have millions of tributes to him over the next few weeks I am going to write much less about him than I intended. Already I have heard negativity towards us fans. I just want to say that despite all the controvercies, no one can deny the world of music and entertainment has suffered a tremendous loss. His impact was so great, his shoes will never be filled.

Dr. Seuss

I'm revisiting some of my earliest creative influences/idols. First up is Dr. Seuss. My all time favorite animation of his stories is "The Lorax" with "The Hooberbloob Highway" a close second.
Seuss was socially relevant, colorful, imaginative and enjoyable for all ages. To me, he is timeless. I had an idea to do a Seuss inspired cityscape for a design project this year. I didn't have the time to do what I originally envisioned but it is definitely a project in my to-do list. While I was browsing Seuss images for this idea I stumbled across something that blew my mind. I knew Seuss was an illustrator aside from just a children's author but I had no idea he did political cartoons. Check out the links , enjoy the cartoon and I hope it brings you the same warm nostalgic feelings it brought me.

Monday bonus post

This is a painting I did in 2006. I had it framed and gifted it to my mom. It hangs in her hallway.

It's about that time

Forgive the hiatus. As you might have guessed from my last post I had a lot going on for a while. Then I took a week and a half to chill out and celebrate my birthday :-)

Here are more assignments throughout this past semester that I didn't get posted.

The first set are from Foundations I: 2d Design and are all explorations of different design elements. They're not entirely fleshed out so don't look at them as complete compositions.My color wheel -very difficult to photograph the true colors but I liked the idea of it anyway

complimentary colors scaleplaying with real and optical textureslines, I may have already posted this. it also should have been rotated 90 degrees to the right but I'm lazy.landscape collage - also very difficult to photographcloseup of the trees, my favorite part. I like the idea of using industrial type images to form an organic landscape. I may recycle this idea later.This was going to be a Dr Seuss city scape but I ran out of time. I am definitely going to do a painting of my original sketch somewhere down the line when I can afford a canvas big enough.

The rest of these are all from my Drawing I class
10 quick sketchesstill life, my apologies for the lighting washing it out when it was photographed. tree in inkstill life in charcoal - we worked on this for 3 weeks in class but I missed a class so mine doesn't look quite as finished as it should

And that's the last of it! I've completed another semester of school. I'm out for the summer and it's time to get serious about Design. Working full time and schooling full time all while trying to maintain some sort of social life and complete freelance work the past 5 months taught me that I never want to do that again. In the past month I gained and lost 2 jean sizes. Weight fluctuation for me is the biggest physical sign of unnecessary stress. This summer I'm committed to getting my professional website launched and clearing my freelance plate (getting paid for the jobs I've already committed to). Come fall semester I want to be 100% devoted to design. I'm going to put more effort and time into my school work and begin shaping my portfolio. Most importantly I'll only be working weekends with my day job so I need to be ready and able to get enough freelance work to cover my expenses. I think my life and priorities have been slowly moving toward this path but it's time for me to get serious. I don't feel as if I've reached even half my potential because I'm too stressed out and tired from trying to fit in a full time job to pay for this education. What's the point of the education if you're not really getting the most out of it?

Happiness and Alex Pardee

A long time friend, Ashley aka Trashley tagged me to write a list. I wouldn't normally consider doing this on my art blog.; I have Facebook for that. However, I think when you're feeling especially bogged down you need to breath and remind yourself of pleasant things to keep up your drive. I'm a firm believer in the philosophy of doing the things that you are most passionate about and if you're generally unhappy you're perfectly capable of changing that.
So, things that make me happy...

1. Mention the person who nominated you (see above).
2. List six unimportant things that make you happy.
3. Tag six blogs, state the rules and notify them with a teeny comment on their blog.

I'm having a difficult time thinking of things that aren't important. That's funny because Ashley's always teased me about being too serious. Ok I can do this....

1. The smell of rain and a cool breeze on a summer evening
2. Success at a perfect fried egg, over medium
3. Cutting paper
4. A really good cup of oolong or pu erh
5. Phone calls from people I miss for no reason
6. art/craft/office supplies

Annnd I'm not going to tag anyone. I'd love to read yours if you feel like doing it. Otherwise here's another artist for your viewing enjoyment: Alex Pardee

I saw this print for sale at the giant peach. I looked at the artist and sort of recognized the name. Looked him up and sure enough he's done several album covers I'm familiar with. I think I like him for a few of the same reasons I like Jeff Soto. I love contrasting disturbing/grotesque/gruesom/dreary images with bright colors. So check him out.
ps, #7 bonus track for happiness, receiving unnecessary gifts